This wholesome soup with its distinctive red colour is moreish, and perfect for cool Autumn evenings. Whilst there is nothing more Russian about me than my name, this is my take on a traditional soup that is full of yin nourishing foods to help you through this drying season.
Ingredients~
- Olive Oil
- 2 lt water
- 4 beetroot
- 2 potatoes, diced into small pieces
- 1 large carrot, grated
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- half a head of cabbage, finely chopped
- 1 cup kidney beans (optional)
- 2 tomatoes, finely diced
- 1 lt home-made (or good quality store-bought) chicken stock. Use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version.
- A handful of dill, stems removed and chopped
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar OR the juice of half a lemon
- black pepper to taste
Method~
- Boil 2 lt water in a large pot
- Rinse the beets and slice off the root and sprouting ends.
- Cook the beets whole until soft (mine took 15 min) then remove and set aside to cool – KEEPING THE WATER
- In a separate pan, sauté onion and garlic until soft in a generous amount of oil
- Add diced potato and sauté for 5 min, stirring occasionally
- Add grated carrot and diced tomato and sautee for a few more minutes
- Meanwhile, remove the peel from the beetroot, then coarsely grate it. Wear gloves if you don’t want to get red hands!
- Put the potato/carrot mix along with the grated beetroot into the pot of beet water
- Add 1 lt stock and bring to the boil
- Cover and simmer for 15 min
- Add chopped cabbage and dill, and if you like some kidney beans, then cover and simmer for another 10-15 min until cabbage is soft
- Add lemon juice or vinegar and season with black pepper
- You can add a dollop of sour cream to serve
Recipe by Nadia McLeod.
